In an increasingly networked world, more and more traffic, such as data, voice, and video, is transmitted over public and proprietary networks. The networks use high data rates (e.g., greater than 10 gigabits per second (Gbps)) to transport greater quantities of traffic. Certain types of the networks, such as optical networks, use complex signal processing to achieve the high data rates. The complex signal processing may be performed using forward error correction (FEC) devices, such as iterative soft decoders, that use soft iterative error correction techniques to reduce a quantity of errors, within the traffic, to a level that is specified by the public and proprietary networks. Certain error patterns associated with the traffic (e.g., locations of errors within an encoded word, etc.) can cause FEC devices to process errors in a manner that includes a bias in favor of certain errors (e.g., earlier occurring errors within an encoded word) and/or to dis-favor processing other errors (e.g., later-occurring errors within an encoded word). Processing the errors in the biased manner may reduce a quantity of errors that can be corrected by FEC devices and/or increase a processing time associated with processing errors within the traffic.